KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 13, 2013 - The Jamaica Volleyball
Association (JaVA) will bring together its five National
Under-13 Parish Squads for an Inter-Parish Competition at the
Herbert Morrison High School in Montego Bay on Saturday 13 April
2013.

The aim of the Association is to assess the development of the
children since the launch of the Parish-level Training Centres
in December 2012, to facilitate interaction and integration and
to start identify teams for competition against teams from
overseas.

Major Warrenton Dixon, President of JaVA, highlighted the
importance of the children from the various Parish Squads
realizing that they are part of a bigger National Programme. He
also stated that the Association has had to make significant
sacrifices to pull together the logistics involved in organizing
the competition.

"Sustaining the Developmental Programme in the absence of
financial support was always going to be a challenge," Dixon
explained. "We launched the Programme because we believe it is a
significant corner stone to securing future national teams that
will provide Jamaica with the kinds of results that will feed
our athletic pride as a country.

“We have not been able to secure sponsorship for the Programme
but there are some actions that we realize we must take if we
are to achieve our objectives. These activities will require
significant sacrifices and innovativeness in the absence of
funding support but inaction is not an option. We are very
thankful for the parents, coaches and administrators who have
absorbed a lot of the financial burden to keep the Programme
going and hope that the results will reward their investment."

Squads from the Training Centres in St Thomas, Kingston, St Ann,
Westmoreland and St James will compete against each other
between 10 am and 3 pm for the prizes on offer and for bragging
rights.

Children who display the best gasp of the volleyball skill sets
will be integrated into two boys and two girls team for an All
Star competition. The All Star competition is aimed at helping
JaVA to identify final teams to compete against visiting teams
from overseas, which is currently being negotiated.